Jury deliberates in Plymouth child molestation case

COURTHOUSE After seven hours of deliberation in the child molestation case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Francis Bottorff, the Hon. Garrett D. Page excused the jury, which had not reached a verdict by 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Page sent the jury home, with instructions to return Thursday with a verdict.

In her closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Colgan called a secretly recorded phone conversation between Bottorff and the alleged victim case a “classic case of blaming the victim.”

Jurors heard the tape of the call, which was monitored at the time by Montgomery County Detective Mary Anders.

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On the tape, Bottorff, of Plymouth Township, says, “I guess anybody could say we crossed the border” and “my hands may have roamed.”

Colgan interpreted that as a confession of guilt and a transfer of blame onto the victim. She urged the jury to think of reasons as to why a 19-year-old girl would come forward with this information eight years after the alleged abuse took place.

“She gave him just enough rope to hang himself,” Colgan said, calling the victim’s testimony full of “consistency and corroboration.”

“Nobody wants to believe this can happen to their family, but what he did and did not say on that phone call it all corroborates (the victim’s) story.”

Bottorff is charged with three counts of indecent assault, one count of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of corruption of minors. According to witness testimony, the victim told a therapist last year, in the presence of her family, about the abuse. It was about that time an investigation was launched and Bottorff was subsequently arrested.

Colgan said the victim had no reason to make up the allegations, but that she had been harboring a bitter secret for nearly eight years.

“The defense couldn’t even manufacture a reason (for her) to lie. She finally uttered the words she kept inside her for a long time.”

In his closing arguments, Richard D. Winters, an attorney for Bottorff, said the commonwealth had no evidence.

“All they have is the sympathy card,” he said. “She set off a bomb in that therapy session. She’s got to stick to that story.”

The victim is one of 45 great-grandchildren in the very large family, which has now split because of this case, according to attorneys.